In thermoelectric generating plants such as steam or nuclear electric generating plants, a recirculating water system through the plant is required in which the water is heated during passage through the plant by the electric generating operation, as is well understood by those with ordinary skill in the art. This heated water was previously dumped into lakes or rivers for cooling and water from the lakes or rivers was circulated back into the plant. Thus, the heat generated in the water was lost with a resultant loss of energy.
More recently, Federal and State regulations have prohibited the dumping of heated water from a thermoelectric generating plant directly into neighboring rivers or lakes and electric generating plants have begun to use cooling towers of either the forced draft type in which a fan or other mechanism causes the flow of air through the cooling tower and consumes additional energy or the natural draft type in which a natural draft of air is created through the cooling tower for cooling of the hot water before recirculation to the plant. While these systems accomplished cooling of the water and eliminated the dumping of hot water into neighboring streams or lakes, these systems also caused heat loss and resultant loss of energy in the electric generating plant operation.
No means or apparatus has heretofore been proposed for recapturing any portion of this normally lost energy in an electric generating plant operation.